July 21, Stage 16: Martigny - Bourg-Saint-Maurice 159km

Chris Anker's Race Summary:

Average Watts: 249w

Normalized power: 296

Average heart rate: 154

Mean Max 5-minutes: 382w

Mean Max 20-minutes: 362w

Kilojoules:  4074

TSS: 276

Col du “Petit”-Saint-Bernard, No Small Affair

Welcome to the big leagues. Stage 16 was a monster of a stage. Even though it only had two climbs, they were very long and the final climb was the Category 1 Petit-Saint-Bernard.

Chris Anker Sorensen rode in a support role in today’s stage and is proving to be a very valuable teammate to Andy Schleck. Team Saxo Bank’s strategy was to setup a massive attack by the Schleck brothers, which would hopefully put Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador in a difficult situation. The key to this strategy was setting a fast pace at the bottom of the Petit-Saint-Bernard. This difficult job would rest on the shoulders of Gutsav Larsson, Nicki Sorensen and Chris Anker Sorensen.

The crucial moment in the race came at the three hour mark when Gustav Larsson was the first Saxo Bank rider to take the reins at the front of the peleton, followed by Nicki, and finally Chris Anker took the final pull on the front before Andy Schleck attacked. Chris rode near maximum effort for 13 minutes, at an average of 365 watts and 184avg HR. His final effort which launched Andy’s attack was 26 seconds in length and averaged 471w.

Now that the race effectively went up the rode and his job was now done for the day, Chris settled back into a comfortable pace and averaged a very manageable 271w for 21 minutes. The only stretch left to ride was a 31km descent to the finish where Chris finished 10 minutes behind the winner Mikel Astarloza .

Chris Anker is racing a great Tour de France and there is much more to come. The final five days will be stressful as the final general classification battle has yet to play out. Alberto Contador is only 1:37 ahead of Armstrong, 1:46 ahead of Bradley Wiggins and 2:26 ahead of Andy Schleck.

We would like to send our get well wishes to Team Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt who crashed in today’s stage and is being treated for facial injuries.

Stay tuned as we continue to follow Chris Anker’s inaugural Tour de France.